Program lets Scouts turn each other into 'zombies'

By JOHN RABY Associated Press

Posted:
07/19/2013 02:54:35 AM MDT

Updated:
07/19/2013 12:32:31 PM MDT

Click photo to enlarge

In a photo provided by the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Boy Scouts participate in a Virginia Tech educational program that shows how viruses spread Friday, July 19, at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree in Mount Hope, W.Va. The Virus Tracker program combines technology with the game of tag. It s meant to show how viruses are spread. I have heard that Scouts earn points by "infecting" other players through bar-coded wristbands.

Participants at the Boy Scouts of America's National Jamboree are turning each other into virtual creepy crawlies by the thousands this week.

It's part of an educational game Virginia Tech researchers designed to show how disease spreads.

The Virus Tracker combines technology with the age-old game of tag. At the 10-day Jamboree, Scouts can earn points by "infecting" other players through a "virus" on bar-coded labels that are attached to their Scout IDs. Codes can be activated at scanning stations or by smartphones that have downloaded the Virus Tracker app. Individuals and troops that amass the most points each day win.

The goal is to stay human.

Colin Slavin, 15, whose Scout troop is based in Germantown Hills, Ill., called the chance to turn other Scouts into zombies "really cool."

Players can sign up when they visit the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute's tent at The Cloud, a technology area at the Jamboree where Scouts also learn about robotics, engineering, computer science and mobile communications.

Slavin heard about the virus program from other Scouts and had to try it for himself Thursday.

After filling out a brief computer survey, he tagged four other people before his brief rampage was stopped by an approaching thunderstorm, which forced officials to shut down the system.

"It was real easy," Slavin said. "It's like, 'Yep, you're infected.

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I got you. I win.' It's just like a large, incredibly different (game of) tag."

Eagle Scout Seth Hopkins, 18, from the Northern Star Council based in St. Paul, Minn., said the Virus Track was a great way to meet new friends. He handed out about a dozen labels Friday and hopes to infect a couple dozen more campers before he leaves.

"I'd walk past people and if I see they don't have one of the zombie stickers, I ask, 'Have you been infected?'" Hopkins said. "(It) usually leads to them asking, 'What?' Which is the perfect opportunity to talk about the Virus Tracker."

Kristy Collins, VBI's education program manager for grades K-through-12, said more than 3,000 of the estimated 30,000 Scouts at the Jamboree have participated so far. The labels are waterproof, enabling Scouts to participate even when they're doing other activities, such as rafting or learning how to SCUBA dive.

Some of the participants' gamer tags have included names like "B1ack.Plague" and "blaime.the.zombie."

It's not the first time technology and the undead have banded together. In 2005, the Humans vs. Zombies tag game was made popular at Goucher College in Maryland. It quickly spread to college campuses and communities nationwide. That version uses socks, foam-dart guns and red or green bandanas and requires reporting "tagged" zombies on a website.

The Virus Tracker system has been used twice before at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. This week marks the first time the Virus Tracker app has been used and the first time the institute has been to the Scouts Jamboree, Collins said.

Researchers are using data collected at the Jamboree to create an "infection tree" to show how individual Scouts spread the zombie virus within their population. The data will show how diseases such as the flu can become pandemics.

At times, "vaccines" are sent out through the system to turn the zombies human again if the Scouts answer an epidemiology question correctly. The Virus Tracker keeps count of things such as the number of infected and inoculated participants. Scouts without access to smartphones can still register by computer at the tent and distribute labels to other Scouts, thereby "infecting" them with the "virus."

"The first thing everybody says is 'is it real?'" Collins said. "And we say, no it's not real. We're not giving you the flu. We kind of laugh about that."